A number of the threads here and on other lists and email I've received
have got me exploring that once again. I've gotten a cluster of emails
from trainers wanting to be listed on my site. They all claim 20 + years
in dog training, they all claim their method is the only right one, they
all spend time decrying other's methods, they all include their
student's dogs as ones they have "trained" and none of them claim or
state objective criteria for evaluating their results.


Is a Top Trainer the person who actually does the training? Or do we
count the results of what the traienrs students have accomplished? It is
measured by the person who is tops in competition? Or can we look at
someone who makes the best out of a dog and say "Now THAT's a trainer!".
Sometimes it seems that people who are tops in their field are more
dependent on their base material than the people stepping on their heels.
We all know of trainers who are only interested in being the tops, and if
they can't *make* a dog be the tops they dump it and find another. But
I've watched many people work hard and succeed at taking a distracted,
distinterested and even clumsy dog and through persistence, creativity
and caring turn that dog into a truly competent performer. Perhaps not a
TOP performer but a credible one. So who is the better trainer - the one
who succeeds with the tough dog or the one who does slightly better with
dog predisposed to succeed?

And isn't there a difference between a dog trainer and a dog training
instructor? If I want someone to teach me how to teach my dog which
criteria is more important - the number of dogs my instructor has had
hired out to movies? or the number of students my instructor has had who
have gone on to title their dogs or hire them out to movies?

My definition? A person who themselves trains to get the best they can
out of the dog. I have more respect for the training skills of someone
who can put a UD on a Basenji than the same title on a Golden Retriever.
I don't care that the Golden Retriever may have the top scores.

Assistant/Student handled dogs results don't count for a top dog trainer.
Students count in evaluating top dog training instructors.

Diane Blackman